Railway time-indicator.



PATENTED SEPT. 5, 1905.

o. WHITAKER. RAILWAY TIME INDICATOR.

APPLIUATI'ON FILED 00T.17,19o4.

u P m w u W L M m F 0 E w. T V. L R A M m man w. l ummm om mmumocumms,wAeu'ncvaN UNITED STATESv PATENT OFFICE.

RAILWAY TIME-INDICATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 5, 1905.

Application led October 17,1904. Serial No. 228,695.

To fall who/1L it 71u01/ concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES NVHITAKER, a f

citizen of' the United States, residing at Eufaula, Creek Nation, IndianTerritory, have invented a certain new and useful RailwayTime-Indicator, of lwhich the following is a specification.

The objects of my invention are to provide an indicator of simple,durable, and inexpensive construction that may be quickly and easilyapplied to any ordinary indicator-board, so that au operator in hisoflice may quickly and easily display upon the indicator-board, locatedat a point exterior to his office, the time when various trains areexpected to arrive and to indicate whether or not said trains are late,and if so how long they will be delayed.

My invention consists in the construction, arrangement, and combinationof the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated areattained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims,and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in whicl *e Figure 1 showsa front view of an indicatorboard with portions of the time-indicatingdisks visible through openings in the board. Fig. 2 shows a frontelevation of the time-indicating' disks. Fig. 3 shows a rear elevationof the disks, which are to be set by the operator as required to turnthe time-indicating disks; and Fig. #t shows a vertical centralsectional view of the complete device.

Referring to the accompanying' drawings, l have used thereferencemumeral 10 to indicate a railway time-board of the ordinarykind. This board is provided on its face with vertical and transverselines, the. first vertical column to the left indicating thetrainnumbers, the next the schedule time for the arrival of' the trains,the third the schedule time for the departure of the trains, and on thelarge column to the right a space for the time of the arrival of thetrain to des! ignate whether the train will arrive on time according toschedule, or if it is late to what extent. The board is also providedwith a number of' horiZontally-arranged lines upon which are marked thegeneral direction in which the various trains are traveling. In theboard between the horizontally-arranged lines under the column denotingthe time of arrival l have formed an opening 11 opposite eachtrain-number, and means hereinafter described are provided fordisplaying through l these openings statements as to the time when thecertain train will arrive.

The numeral 12 indicates a shaft one end of which is mounted in theboard below the row of openings, and the other end is extendedrearwardly from the board and designed to pass through a wall into aroom occupied by the operator. Fixed to the outer end of the shaft 12,directly in the rear of the board 10, isarelativelysmall disk 13, havingformed on its front face, near its periphery, a series of lines dividingsaid space into oblong' figures. IVithin one of said figures are thewords On time, and within the remaining ones of said figures are wordsand figures indicating different times with the word Late in eachfigure. The said figures on the disk are so arranged with relation tothe board 10 that the words on the figures may be seen through the lowerone of the openings 11 in the board. On the other end of the shaft 12 isa disk 14, which may be smaller than the disk 13, if' desired, and thisdisk is fixed to the shaft 12 by the set-screw 15. It is periphery, andadjacent to these openings are numbers corresponding' to the figures andwords on the disk 13. Said disk 14 is preferably provided with a handle1T, so that the disk may be easily rotated.

Rotatably mounted upon the shaft 12 is a sleeve 18, and fixed to one endof the sleeve is the disk 19, immediately in the rear of the disk 13 andof somewhat greater diameter than the. disk 13. This disk is also formedwith figures upon its front face near its periphery, which figures maybe seen through the next to the lower opening inthe board l0. The sleeve18 is slightly shorter than the shaft, and mounted upon the other end ofsaid sleeve'is the disk 20 of slightly-larger diameter than the disk 14and formed with a handle 2l. and a series of openings 22. Mounted uponthe sleeve 13 is another sleeve provided with a disk on its outer endlarger than the adjacent disk in front of it, and on the other end ofthis sleeve isa smaller' disk slightly larger than the adjacent disk,before described, in the rear of it. Any number of sleeves and disks maybe provided in the same manner. All of the disks in the rear of theboard have figures upon their front faces to indicate the time ofarrival of trains, and each is slightly larger in diameter than the onein front of it, so that a portion of its front face near its peripherymay be seen through one of the formed with a series of openings 16 nearits' lOO IIO

openings in the board. For each of such sleeves and disks there is adisk at the =rear end of the shaft fixed theretol by a set-screw andformed with openingsas before described.

I have provided means for holding all of the disks at the rear end ofthe device accurately spaced apart and for locking each individual diskas follows: The numeral 23 indicates a bracket secured to a stationarysupport 24CV and kformed with notches in its lower end, each designed toreceivethe edges of the disks at the rear of the shaft l2 and sleeves18. The said bracket 23 is formed Withl a series of openings 24,designed to coincide With the openings of the said disks, sothat-thepins 26 may be passed through the openings in the bracket and into anyselected one of the openings in the disks. Sup porting-'chains 27 areprovided for said pins.

In practical use andk assuming'that the large disks are arranged intherear of a board provided With openings as described and divided byvertical and horizontal lines and provided with indicia designating thesubject-matter before explained and assuming that the other set of disksWere arranged in the operators room, then if the operator receivedinformation that a certain train would be ten minutes late he would thengrasp 'the pin 26 belonging to the disk Which applied to the particulartrain designated and Would remove said pin. He would then grasp thehandle of said disk and rotate the disk until the opening therein markedwith the numeral 10 would be directly under the bracket 23. He wouldthen replace the pin in position through the bracket and the openingindicated by the numeral 10. This operation Would move the disk in therear of the board that related to the particular train desired to suchposition that the figure on the said disk in which wasfcontained thewords Ten minutes late would be visible throughthe opening in the boardcorresponding to the train designated. The object in providing the pins26 is to prevent any of the disks from turning except the pa-rticularone that the operator grasps. If they were not thus locked, others ofthe disks might be inadvertently moved when the disk was moved to thedesired position.

Ordinari-ly the room in which a-railW-ay operator or station agent'islocated is enti-rely inclosed and it is necessary to leave the room inorder to Write upon a board'thetime when certain trains are expected toarri-ve. This operation has to be gone through very often,

because When a train is late the operator fre quently receivesinformation stating that the train Will arrive at different times.Therefore the posting of the expected time of the arrival of varioustrains is a matter which consumes considerable of an operators time andrequires him to leave his office frequently. By means of my'improvementthe small disks at 'the inner end of the shaft may be located inside theoperators room and at ap'ont-Where they may be conveniently moved fromthe operators chair, so that theoperator need lose little time inaccurately posting upon the indicator-board all of the information hereceives from .time to time in regard to the arrival of trains.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire tosecure'byLetters Patent of the United States ltherefor, is-

' 1. The combination with aboard having openings therein,.of a shaftrotatably mounted in the rearvof the board, a disk on the shaft having aportion of 'its face visible through one of the openings, adisk fixed tothe other end of the shaft, a sleeve rotatively mounted on the shaft, adisk fixed to its Vfront and of larger diameter than the first-mentioneddisk and located in therearof'said'first-mentioned disk and having aportion of itsiface visible through another one of 'the openings in. theboard, afdiskfonl'the rear end of 'the sleeve, a bracket formed Withnotches -to receive the disks at the -rear of the shaft and sleeve, `andmeans for locking said disks to the bracket.

2. Thecombination of aboard formed With openings, a shaft rotatablymounted inthe rear of the board, a disk fixed tothe front'of the shaftwith a portion of its face visible through one of the openings, a sleeverotatably mountedionfthe shaft, a disk at 'the front thereof of largerdiameterthan the aforesaid disk and located immediately inthe rear of itWith a portion of its face visiblethrough .another one of the-openingsin the board, disks fixed to the rear ends of the shaft and sleeve andformed with openings near Vtheir peripheries, a bracket formed withnotches to re- 4ceive'the rear disks and also formed With openingsdesigned fto coincide With thefopenings in the disks and pins designedto pass through the openings in the brackets and to enter one of vtheopenings :in .each disk.

CHARLES WHITAKER. Witnesses:

- J. RALPH ORWIG, lS. F. CHRISTY.

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